Asire's SketchBook: Updated Aug 5rd "arabian nights"

[Asire]

I have been batting around the idea of starting a sketch book here for way too long, and finally decided I pretty much have to. I get so much inspiration from these forums, but I useually shy away from commenting thinking "Well it's better than what i can do, sooo who am I to crit?". Seriously there is so much talent just dripping from here, I can't be the only one that's a wee bit intimidated right?

Well whatever the case may be, I feel guilty about getting so much in the way of advice (told to others) and inspiration, I figured as embarrasing as it may be, perhaps others could learn from my mistakes.

I graduated last september with a degree in comic book art, and then realised that to be able to do my dream job of concept art I would actually have to be able to paint, use colour and not just be some hack that throws most of his scribbles away.

So yeah, I guess I will post my attempts at painting as well as sketches if thats ok, and ofcourse any and all feed back would be greatly welcomed, should you feel the urge.

Cheers, and I hope you find something in here to enjoy.


:mod: (I have no idea what this means, but man, It's awsome, had to use it)

[Saturns Gate]

Great start, keep posting :)

[Secret Sun]

Lovely.

Keep it up!!

[Ex Nihilo]

Welcome, Asire. You obviously have artistic knowledge that we can benefit from, so please don't shy away from writing critiques.
This is great stuff; let's see some more.

[Kan Muftić]

nice stuff, will keep an eye on you.
cheers,
khan

[Asire]

Hey again, and thanks for the kind welcome, I really appreceiate it, as I said I was quite anxious to post here, thinking that my thread would get flat out ignored or somthing like that.

Just thought before i post some images, for any one interested, I should say how I plan on doing this. I want to post new stuff Monday through friday every evening. Weekends are for the family, so unless I get a gap on a random Saturday, there probably won't be anything new posted.

Replys:

Saturns Gate: Thanks! Will Do!

Secret Sun: Cheers! I will try :)

Ex Nihilo: Thankyou, that's very nice to hear, especially from some one of your caliber. I looked at your SB, and your one of the people that make me nervous to post, lol

Chupacabra: Thank you... I think... have you put cameras in my house or anything? 'Coz I sware that huge stack of porn around my desk is purely for refrence...


And on to some new work. the wto painted heads were just me messing around, trying to figure out hair, stubble and skin.

The lines are tightend sketches I need to get around to painting, but colour seriously terrifys me I never know where to start. So hopefully for the rest of this week I will post my process, and if one of the many amazing painters here could give me a point in the right direction that would be great.

Cheers, and hope you enjoy.

[Grafguy]

great stuff, i love the colored pieces from the first post, certainly the one with the mask :)

[Nibras]

nice stuf!!!
loving all the coloured and sketches looking very great
keep it up mate :P

[JailHouseRock]

Great sb mate,
nice one, keep at it!

[mo206]

I love your line work. Very Nice!!!:sungod:

[Eugie]

You got some pretty awesome charactersmore please.

[KarylGilbertson]

Holy crap, heck of a strong start. Keep posting goodies!

[Asire]

Thanks for the comments! I really wasn't expecting such a posative responce, so thanks again :)


Grafguy: Thank you :) She was the first thing I painted useing anything other than really basic flat cell shade types, so I am very happy you like it.


lilnebo: Cheers mate, thanks for stopping by!


JailHouseRock: Thanks for the kind words! I will!


mo206: Thanks! Hopfully some time soon I will be able to do some decent colours too. Maby by Page 10? or 50? lol


Eugie: Cheers! I alsways worry that my designs are too boring and stale, so thats nice to hear. Should have more every day Mon-Fri :)


Ookchk: Thankyou very much.



Some sketches from this morning (useually try to grab about an hour in a coffy shop every morning to losen up)... Everyone always seems to sit so I can only see their profile :S

Should have some colours following shortly. Thanks for stopping by.

[Asire]

So those colours that were coming shortly had to wait till today, I forgot I was playing in a 5 a side game last night.

Just building up the value before going back in with some colour overlays, this only has black, 80 and 50 % greay on it right now, but I stopped for a break, figured I would post where I was at.

Finished greays followed by colours coming up.

If you see anything to crit, please do. Can make ammendments on the fly :)

[Asire]

Think I am done with the tones on this. No where near perfect, but I am having fun with it.

Again crits ect very welcome, wanted and needed :)

[curry23]

I'm loving your work C: nice lines and cool characters.

[Lyno]

Nothing to crit right now for the last one, looks like the tones are well placed. Just the hair could use some more tones. Also watch out for the highlight on her cheeck.

Anyway :) , looks your having fun so keep the updates coming :).

[Asire]

Just updateing my progress, took a long break to cook dinner, bath the kid, and chillax a while with the missus.

So on to colours. I am crap with overlays, and colour in general, so apologies in advanced for any damaged eyesight.

Just laying out some basic colours to work with. Gone with the old faithful blue/orange complimentary, bout to warm up the lightsource, and make the colours less saturated in the shadows.

And thanks for the replys!


curry23: Cheers mate!


Lyno: Your right about the cheek, I hope I have adressed that, although I want the side of her face strongly lit, so i hope i havn't gone over the top with that. Also, for some reason, I can never get hair right in greyscale, so I finish the rest of the painting first, then paint the hair over useing sample values from the rest of the image. I know its weird, but thats why the hair is some incomplete.

Thanks to both of you for taking the time to comment, I appreciate it :)

[Dorkthrone]

Nice concepts you've got here.

[Asire]

Finished with this one now. Was playing around with the lighting, I useually do really boring lighting scheams, so i tried somthign a little extravagent (for me anyway) by placing the light at her side.

Crits of all shapes and sizes welcomed and enjoyed, so please fire away. and thanks for taking your time to have a glance.


I am off to bed now, I will be doing the same thing with a new drawing tomorrow, so feel free to join me late morning GMT

oh and;

ninjacat11: Thankyou very much :)

night all!

[Asire]

Tones for today, working on the colours after dinner, so updates later this evening.

Cheers for looking !

[Dannelf]

This is great! :D would love to see some life-studies, because of your impressive lines!
keep it up! :)

[Asire]

Back from dinner, and the basic colours are in place. Next update will be the finished version. Will fix the bong eye and halo-ing issues along with painting on the actual hues I want. Want to get this done in the next 30 mins ish, so see you then

Cheers for looking


Dannelf: Thanks! Seriously, your too kind, I wish my lines were impressive :) As far as life drawing goes, I try to get out and draw people about 5 times a week (useually ends up being 3-4 as stuff comes up) but aside from that, there are no actual life drawing sessions anywhere near where I live that I know of. If I get the oppertunity to draw from models, This will be the first place they are posted :) Thanks again for looking

[Asire]

And here is the finished bloke. Another beautiful evening where I live, so the lighting again inspired by the sunset, as I havent seen a decent one in far too long.

As far as the design goes, I was picturing some faded rock star, perhaps contemplating his life? who knows, haha.


Thanks for having a glance, will do the same again tomorrow, new drawing, same old practice. All comments welcomed and appreciated

Cheers


EDIT: I just noticed as i posted, my original sketch had scruffy stubble, so I added some (mainly because I find it hard to paint) So yeah, heres that too, Whats your prefrence? Clean or rough? :)

[strybjorn]

cooool, this is a really strong start man - your characters have a really strong style, espec the b&w pencils in your first post, and are of a high quality... you've got a really good sense of anatomy going on... excellent stuff

im curious, have you got any life drawings? would be good to see them if you have :)

as for crits, i would say it might be good to try and loosen up a bit more, especially in your coffeeshop sketches. try some gesture studies and capturing a pose in 1 or 2 or 3 strokes and in 10, 30 and 60 secs... they might look like crap :D but they're really good for making sure you're arent too stiff...

secondly, im not sure how your colourising your b&ws, are you using the burn and dodge tools? i would personally steer clear of them a little bit at first as i personally feel they kill the colours unless you're very careful. also, it might be worth doing some studies on how light and colour bounce around... check this (http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm#light_stuff) out if you havent already...

wow, this turned into something long and boring... sorry bout that...

looking forward to seeing some more stuff soon!

[Asire]

No painting so far today, I don't know why, but I woke up In a bit of a slump today, can't seem to do anything even slightly right. Going to go out and do some people watching/drawing, see if I can get out of it.


strybjorn: Thanks for the reply and compliments! I really enjoyed your sketch book (and will continue to do so) so that means a lot! The only life drawing I have is quite old now, the only place I had access to any sessions was when I was at school, and I can't seem to find any groups near where I live. As for dodge an burn, I avoid them like the plauge, mainly because as you have noticed, my work tends to become oversaturated. I think it's down to having a duff comp or somthing, becuse it looks fine on the section of my screen that works properly (Most of my moniter onlydisplays in tones of red or green) but If I look at it on another PC, it looks totally wrong.


Also, thanks for the link! That tutorial looks great, this is just the sort of feedback I was looking for, so thanks for taking the time to write it! Not long and boring at all! Cheers for the advice, and I hope you keep coming back :)

[donalfall]

Your coloured pieces are cool. I think the girl from April 23rd ended up looking the best (when you placed the strong light at her side)... as for the guy, he looks best clean shaven. It is hard to add stubble and this version doesn't work properly. Maybe a change of brush, have it more broken up or something. I only have one other crit. and that is that although the way he's leaning on the side of his right foot is quite natural-seeming, it makes the foot look smaller than the left.

Your flesh tones seem a bit too yellow-ey. But that could be your monitor. Give it up for a bad job and get yourself a new one. There's nothing worse than a spazzy monitor.

But that's a specific, and in general I have to say that I think your pieces are really accomplished and I love their sense of balance and movement. Your quicker sketches in your first couple of posts look the business and show you're up for some great concepts. Keep posting!

[strybjorn]

dunno if this will help you or not, but a little while ago i found a database of evening classes around the country...i know evening classes arent ideal (im thinking something a bit more informal might be better) but if it gives you a model for an hour a week, then it would be worth it i reckon

the closest i found to boro is the newcastle version - i dont know the NE particularly well but i hope that you can venture into newcastle to find something... drawing classes

dont worry too much about the slump, just keep going man :)

[Asire]

Heyup


Firs of all, sorry for the break. I hit a wall last week, and it dawned on me just how much time i had been spending chained to my desk, so I took a week off to have some family time. It was fantastic.


But now back to the drawing board. I am wanting, as of tomorrow, to get back on with posting every day. I am not sure how well it will go, but I am going to give it my best shot.

Replys:

donalfall: Thank you very much. Ytou right about his foot, and my skin tones. Its a reccuring issue I have, and as much as I need a new moniter (I have plugged in a few different ones to the same result, so I am thinking its a graphics card issue), I still think it's down to my lack of painting experience. Also thanks for the kind words, I hope you keep coming back to see how things progress :)


strybjorn: Thanks again! It's good to see you came back! That link sounds wonderful, and would be very useful as I am quite near Newcastle, but unfortunatly I can't get the link to work. Perhaps the list moved? And thanks for the 'Chin up' I appreciate it. I am going to check out your SB after this post, hope theres some new stuff :)


And to show my good intentions for the next week, here are a few sketches, and an Idea I had when I saw the COTW thread earlyer this evening. I started drawing, then realised the deadline was tonight, and i would have to stay up to finish It. I guess I will paint it in my own time and take part in next weeks challange.

cheers for looking

tata

[BlightedArt]

Nice new additions. I like the top right sketch in the first pic of your latest post.

I have one or two gripes with this pic (the most recent coloured one):

http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=355096&stc=1&d=1209073121


Namely the stage-left leg, it looks very awkward and stubby, not sure if that was intentional but I think I see what you were trying to do with it. I'd say you could have lowered the foot a bit more, adjusted the angle of it a little, and also bent the leg. As it is it looks like the foot is leaning on its side but that single twist isn't even effecting the leg in the slightest.

I'm aware what you were trying to do with that image, and it's a tough pose to capture, but keep at it. =D

[Asire]

Hey all!

So much for the daily attempts again huh? Sorry about that, Life keeps throwing curve balls, and I am rubbish with those :S Either way, I have of course still been drawing every chance I get. This week I mainly spent time tightening up sketches that I thought would look good finished up. So here's what I came up with below.


BlightedArt: Thank you very much for your crit! You are, ofcourse totally right. I struggled with that gesture, and I thought it looked ok in the sketch, or at least as good as I was going to get it without a re-draw (which I didn't have the time for) but I think it went totally pear shaped with the colours. Sorry about the slow reply, and thanks for the look in :)

[chuck18mp]

very cool :) I like the way you draw kids, i dunno it's cool(but not pervert)lol .

[Randomself]

groovy pencils you have here! I really like how expressive and natural they are.. no crits from me, but maybe you could try more dynamic poses? would be fun to see how you do those.. cheers!

[Moftah]

veryyy nice,i really like ur dirtynness of ur pencil work,and i love the sketch of the woman with the sword and the bird on her shoulder,keepem dirty and do lots and lots of sketching,dont focus so much on clean lines and clean work,do a MESS.
show more.;)

Moftah's Sketchbook

[strybjorn]

duh, sorry mate - get all your hopes up then supply a duff link! this is what i was referring to - floodlight.co.uk seems to have loads of places that do evening classes - heres the newcastle link http://newcastle.floodlight.co.uk/newcastle/courses-classes-lessons/best-drawing-courses/qualification/study/region/16180339/220706/100/domain.html

hope it helps...

*edit* oh yeah and your new stuff is wicked - your weapons hardware is tops and the image of a mother with child and AK47 is really strong...good characterisations, my only crit would be to try and get a little looser with your drawing ( by going to life drawing :D ) so that poses look a little more natural...at the moment they are physically sound, but lack a little natural movement and flow. look forward to more soon!

[Matsign]

chicks with sweet guns and equipment, can't go wrong. I like what you're drawing. I really like the emotion attachment with the child and mother... and then the hot ak-47. Reminds me of Children of Men

[Jelluh]

Awesome work !!! Guess I'll keep an eye on this

[Asire]

Wow!

Thankyou very much for all of the commcents! Reply time!

chuck18mp: Thanks! To be honest, I feel like I stuggle when drawing children, no matter how many times I sketch they never seem quite right to me. So thank you, it's nice to hear that at least some one likes the way I draw kids :)

Randomself: Thankyou! Yeah, I get what your saying with the poses. Next batch of sketches I do after I paint my way through my current lot, I will try somthing a bit more adventurous. Thanks for stopping by :)

Moftah: Haha, you would like my raw sketches I think. I tidy up all my sketches, most people seem to prefere them neat and tight. I will try to keep some "dirty ones" just for you next time I post some pencil work! Thanks for the comment!

strybjorn: Hey, thanks for coming back! That links working now, but I am actually globe trotting for the next few months, so unfortunatly still not gonna be able to make any regular sessions. I still get out, and I am trying to loosen up my lines as I think your right on with your crit. I think its just habbit, my background being in Comics, its hard enough not to put a fat ink line around everything :) Cheers for the link and compliments, see you around!


Matsign: Thanks! The sketch of the mother and daughter originally was just the girl running toward the mum. I had one of those "what if" moments, mainly because a potential client was asking if I could draw wepons, so I slapped a gun on her. I thought It was cool how somthign like that totally changes the story of the image. And I have heard that Children of men is a good film, I'll have to get one to watching that. Thanks for the comments!


Jelluh: Thank you! I hope you find time to stop in every once in a while! :)




The attached image is my first attempt at painting from scratch, straight into colours with no previously planned BG or anything like that. So this is the sketchy underpainting, mainly for composition, I will post updates as they come :) Feel free to shout at me if somthing looks totally wrong, I am still trying to get the hang of this whole painting thing.

cheers.

[krisCrash]

It's off to a good start for sure, but if you want bright sunlight falling in like that, you might want to play around with some golden light playing on surfaces. The frog man is nifty, you don't see that many of those.

[Ex Nihilo]

The frogman is indeed nifty. He looks as if he just woke up and went outside to face the morning light. If this is supposed to be a morning scene, I think the colors are going pretty well so far. My only complaint is that when I see a frogman in a frogman environment, I want to see him doing frogman things. -that was fun to type:) The fact that he is just standing there takes away from the interest.

I'm enjoying your sketches; Keep it up.

[Asire]

Hey guys, just pdateing the progress on the frog/lizzard guy. Well, not so much of an update as it is a conclusion. I struggled with this a little, I don't think he fits the BG, or perhaps its the BG that doesn't fit him. Well it's time to move on from this one and start somthing new, but I don't think its too bad for my first finished BG. Tell me what you think :) All tips and crits very much welcomed and needed

cheers!

krisCrash: Thanks for the advice! I took it into account, although I ended up making the light a bit more red to draw attention to his green skin, but your tip started that line of thought! Thanks for the compliment, cheers for stopping by



Ex Nihilo: Haha, talk about a toung twister! Your totally right on with the lack of action. The sketch for this guy was never ment to be a finished painting, and was just for designs sake. I painted this because i wanted to try somthign with non human colourd skin, and I was in a hurry to start, lol. So yeah, he sould deffinalty be bouncing around or somthing dynamic, and I think the over all image does suffer for it. Next time eh?

Thanks for coming back as well :)



Take care all.

[Dannelf]

Most recent stuff is really cool! :) Like the colouring!
Keep posting!

[Ex Nihilo]

The sketch for this guy was never ment to be a finished painting, and was just for designs sake.



Completely understandable. Finished piece is looking good, btw. Great texture on those rocks.

[KingCobra00]

I love the contrast between the smooth frogman skin and the roughness of the rocks. The rough texture is really well done.

[Yacob]

Nice sketchbook. I really like your characters, and your digital paintings are awesome.

[Alternative]

Really nice stuff you got here. Your lines are great, I think I might be in love :]

Your character designs are wonderful. Also really liking the textures on your last post.
Keep posting, please.

[Asire]

Heyup guys.


Long break. Went to Vancouver for a week, and spent the last 4/5 days suffering from the worst jet lag I have ever had. I normally don't get it too bad, and it was a tricky one, first day back I was fine, but day 2-5 I was totally owned. Oh well, I have some more sketches for you to take a peek at, all of girls as practice for a project I am about to start. Also tried to figure out different fabrics and how they fold, dunno if I got it right with just line, may need to paint some to really get it down.


Replys:

Dannelf: Cheers for coming back :) Thanks for the kind words!


Ex Nihilo: your becoming a regular, so thanks for your frequent feedback! I really appreciate it. Thanks for the compliment, i was worried about how the textures came out, but they seem to have gone down well!


KingCobra00: Thanks! I'm glad you like it :)


Yacob: Cheers! I'm glad you like what you see. I dunno if awesome is the right word though, there is so much good stuff around here it's tough to draw/paint somthing to compare. Thanks again.


Alternative: Thank you very much! If you like my line work, you might want to check out artists (if you havent already) like Rodolphe Guenden or Pierre Alary, or basicly any other artist with a background in french animation. They knock the socks off my line work! I can't figure out how they get so much movement with so few lines. cheers again for the kind words!


here's the new stuff. I am jetsetting off again on Friday, so I will try to get as much done, and posted before then.

Thanks for looking

Takecare all.

[ditchman]

nice sketches! i love the one of the girl carrying the jar, though her feet are a tad small i think.

[Dan Valkar]

ur woman skecthes r really good! now they need colour..keep the good work comin'!

[monotony]

yeh I'll second that, your girl sketches are awesome. love the first one of your last update most I think. her face is great and clothes are really good.
like ditchman said her feet and the barefeet one on the bottom look a bit small.
looking forward to more.

[Asire]

Wow, fast replies, cheers guys. Last sketch of the day for me, focusing more on costume design, construction, and not so much the girl on this one, so apologies for the shoddy figure.


ditchman: Thanks you. I quite like how that one turned out too. I totatlly agree on the feet, I was trying to make it look like her feet were pointing outward a bit, but it all went a bit pete tong. Cheers for looking, and for the kind words!


Dan Valkar:Thanks! And your right, I have a huge pile of things to paint my way through :S. Thanks for stopping by.

monotony: Thanks mate, and yeah, along with ditchman your totally right. I was trying to make the feet on my figures in general look a bit more natural and not always either in total profile of dead straight on. I am going to have to practice a lot more till I get it right. Thanks for looking.

[Asire]

Hey all, few more sketches hot off the press. You may be noticing a lot (i.e. all) of my recent posts have been of woman. While I love drawing woman as much as the next guy, I am not especially avoiding drawing men, or anything else for that matter, it just happens the thing I am working on right now only calls for images of woman.

just thought I should clear that up.

Anyway, it's hot as hell here, figured every one could use some icecream.


Cheers for looking.

p.s. I have just got a setup with photoshop sorted out after a few weeks of not having it, so some more painted stuff should be making its way here soon.

[Asire]

It's been a while. Had some work that I am not alowed to share (yet anyway) to get done. I wish I could blame that entirly but honestly, life has just been hecktic, and the time I have had to draw for myself, I have been producing crap.

Anyway, I have to post sooner or later, so I figured the sooner I can get the bad stuff up, the sooner I can draw somthign good.

Well thats the theory anyhoo.

And I do draw guys, honest, I just wouldn't subject you guys the whats been coming out of my pencil as of late.

Either way, back to regular updates,

Thanks for stopping by,

Ta ta.

[KarylGilbertson]

I really, really like your posing. The figures look really dynamic in your sketches... I know you mentioned that they tighten up when you refine them, which happens... but since your starting point is so much more dynamic, even if you lose a bit of that in the render you've still got some left over. Nice work!

[HFix]

all your character sketching is amazing! love the style and that froggy is the cutest ! love him-great character design.

[ditchman]

those last two look great, nice costume design on them too.

[Asire]

Hey up.

Just a couple of sketchs of guys. Been drawing a lot of woman recently, figured I need to draw some blokes. i have been hittign a real block with my painting recently... as In I am not getting any done. It's like I can't figure out where to start or somthing. I am probably overthinking it or somthing. Either way, thats my aim over the next week, is to get back into the painting full swing. Also should give you guys somthign interesting to look at for a change :)


Ookchk: Thanks for the kind words! Too kind really, but I'll take em :) Can't wait to see your thread flesh out some more, see you around.

HFix: Wow, thanks! i appreciate it. I hope you keep stopping by.


ditchman: Cheers! Thanks for coming back as well. I hope you keep finding somthign to like.

[Jelluh]

Uh Oh that little creepy fairy looks like it's gonna rip me apart

[Asire]

Hey all. couple more things I manged to squeeze out of the old pencil in the 40 min's I got chance to draw today.

I am pretty sure the right arm (his right arm) of the hazmatt guy should be bent, but thats an easy fix if I decide to tighten these up.

I might use the girl in a short comic I want to do, depending on how things fall over the few weeks.

Jelluh: haha, he just might! I am glad you think that, I was worried that he just looked silly, as opposed to creepy. Thanks for stopping by.


Thanks for looking guys,

Take care.

[Asire]

Hey all. new sketch book (actual paper sketch book, not thread just incase anyone would get confused) So i thought I would post a couple of full pages.

The paper in this one is a lot closer to thick printer paper than any pas I have used before, so it doesn't smudge or rip as much as softer toothed paper, which I am prefereing, especially as I rarely render sketches.

Hope you see somthing you like,

Tata.

[Asire]

Something I have been working on for a couple days. Yeah yeah, I am a slow painter. Either way, I want to have this totally finished tonight, but I thought this looked kinda cool in its current state, it's kinda like the invisable man.

I will post a proccess and the initial sketches when its done, if any one wants to see.

[L. Scott Knight]

Yeah, I want to see. So far that's awesome!

[Asire]

Think I am done on this one. I am sure it could be much better, but I would have to be a better painter for that to happen. Speaking of which, If anyone has any advice or crits, please please do tell. I really have problems with painting quickly, and colour theory in general, so If you have any bright ideas or anything like that, Lay em on me!

L. Scott Knight: Thankyou very much! I have attached the process and final image to this post, for your (i hope) viewing pleasure.

Takee care all, and thanks for looking.

[Jelluh]

Stalker ?

Dont stand there, come in !!!

[Asire]

Hey up, just posting a wip. I guess this is probably inspired by the fact I recently picked up Assasins Creed. Cool game by the way, especially the visuals.

Oh, and No ref used, so sorry for any innaccuracys in costume design. Speaking of the costume, I am trying to make his trousers look mega baggy, But it kind just makes his crotch look really low down. If anyone has any tips on the matter, please do tell :)


Jelluh: haha, man that post had me confused for the longest time, till a freind of mine told me stalker was a game, and that was a quote from it. Either way, I looked up stalker after I found out what it was, and yeah, It does look a lot like somthign from that game. That was unintentional, but I have to admit that game looked pretty damn sweet, so maby I am on the right track? cheers for coming back again, see you around.

:steph:

[Jelluh]

Haha glad you could understand the quote. The game is pretty awesome but the best ending you could get is kinda wackey. Anyways your latest work is great !